Calculating the Maximum Acquisition Time for a Single Record

So how do I calculate the maximum single record acquisition time for my digitizer? There are some obvious factors, such as acquisition memory size, sample rate, and the number of bytes (or bits) per sample. However, some other factors aren’t so obvious, such as the effect of using an external clock, using DGT mode with binary decimation, or using DDC mode (an available option for M9203A and M9703B).

This article explains how to calculate maximum acquisition time using these factors, highlighting any restrictions that have to be taken into account.

Single record acquisition time is limited to 236 clock cycles. This includes decimated clock cycles, so there are some cases where maximum acquisition time is reached before memory is full – maximum acquisition time is reached at decimation ratio 26 for M9203A-M40 and M9703B-M16. Decimation greater than 26 will still decrease the sample rate, but won’t increase acquisition time.